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Very good! The episode's plot was very original, and the format was interesting. The episode didn't have a huge number of laughs, but it told a strong and captivating story. However, I'm not sure if we were supposed to feel for Lisa or not while she was trying to write a book, because I certainly didn't. She kind of seemed like a jerk to me, but got better as the episode progressed. All in all, this was a really good episode, 4.5/5.

Also, I was kind of hoping that Patty or Skinner would mention their old relationship, but oh well.

This was probably the best episode of the season, so far. Nothing stood out to me as really objectionable, and they did make decent use of Neil Gaman. I also like the fact that tween literature is overrun by vampires, because that's what the companies think will sell. I'm glad their slightly original Harry Potter ripoff succeeded in the end.

Also, I feel like the smoking dinosaurs was a direct quote of a Far Side comic.

You can add me to the "best of the season" thus far, crowd.
I have literally nothing to complain about this week. Although I WILL complain if Dan Vebber doesn't get asked back to write another episode.

This season has been unexpectedly solid, thus far (provided you ignore that first horrific THOH segment). Hopefully we won't sink back into mediocrity next week.

Not as good as I thought. There were too much going on and a lot of unnecessary padding especially the use of those black screens with those written cues. There was that double twist ending that had me speechless. Bringing up the Angelica Button series was just another one of those pointless callbacks. I did like the opening scene at the stadium regarding the audiences reaction to the dinosaurs and Homer's choices on who to help him out in their quest at writing.

Also agree on best of the season so far. I enjoyed the format and the outcome, and how Lisa didn't turn out to be all preachy. I'll give it a 4/5, only loses a point for being low on laughs overall, though I did get a huge laugh out of "I got the idea from every movie ever made!"

Originally Posted by Toy Story 2 Was OK

Oh crap, I forgot about this one. Is there any set rerun?

Well theres Hulu, or just torrent it or search for it, I mean come on, its 2011 man!

Pretty forgettable, but still better than most episodes this season. It was just another slightly better version of the typical living impaired Simpsons. The plot lobbed through, we had a few small laughs and then we got a predictable ending that tried too hard to be unpredictable. I do have a few positives, however: the pizza joke was great for Living Impaired Simpsons and I gotta give Neil Gaiman credit for allowing himself to be portrayed that way. I will give it a B-. Overall, a kind of dissapointing episode, but good for this season. I stand by the idea of Matt Selman taking over the show runner job permanently.

Well, next week it's back to Al "I've Overstayed My Welcome and I Don't Give a Flying Fuck" Jean taking over the helm again. Everybody get your vomit buckets ready.

That was actually pretty good. After so many years watching the Simpsons, I'm not so much concerned with laughing every 3 seconds as I am being entertained by the overall story. While this wasn't the funniest episode, it had an engaging story and was well-executed.

I am sorry but I didn't find this episode funny at all. I mean I get that Bart and Homer were only writing this story to gain a profit from it and wanted to get other people from the town involved in it as well but I find it hard to believe that they would have ever intended to share the money with the other people. Of course, I find it unrealistic that they would even be involved in such a project, none of them seem like they have the talent to write, especially Homer. However, the one thing I will say if there was one thing that I liked was the ending that it was revealed that Lisa didn't betray her father and brother, but actually helped their cause though it turns out all them got cheated at the end but it was cool to see that they all made up at the end.

Why is Jake not making the R/R threads anymore? I always get a decent chuckle out of the stupid poll options rather than just 5/5 etc.

Fixed.

First, I'd rather have no couch/blackboard gag if they're stupid or run too long. Second, this episode was a fresh, relatively original story for once and it had me interested even though I guessed the ending by accident. It had good pacing and didn't feel like a disjointed mess, IMO.

I'd give this a decent episode a 4/5, making it the best episode of this dismal Season.

Originally Posted by SimpsonArgentina

T.R. Francis was not an old women at "The Haw-Hawed Couple"???
She is young now...

Maybe T.R. Francis is the Alan Smithee of shitty books, or a female "Benjamin Button" thing?

Well, ya'know if you stay positive and forget about trivial things like "proper characterization," "Satire," and "emotional depth" watching new Simpsons episodes can be a seemingly enjoyable lie.

I liked it quite a bit, surprisingly. I thought it'd just be a bunch of Twilight jokes for 20 minutes. I wouldn't say it was amazing, but it was so much better than every episode this season, in my opinion. I'm probably being a little too generous, but I gave it a 4/5 anyway.

This is the other episode that Selman executive produced; and I have to say that it's better then "The Good Food Wife"... Here he feels at home and manages to even make a parody of Ocean's Eleven work, even though the stuff tieing down the parody felt flashy and unnecessary...

First off, the shortened-intro thing is something specific to Selman... I mean two episodes featuring that, if he does become executive producer; expect the HD introduction to be gone and that to introduce future episodes, I mean it just gets into the plot and it's understandable due to the 4-act structure messing up the flow of the stories. That shortened intro thing is good because what would of been a 3-act story is successfully condensed into a 4 act story with the appropriate breaks where they should be...

The plot about a fantasy book business had me worried, I thought they were going to screw it up but fortunately they didn't. Part of this is because it had time to set up the essential points, the fake book authors, the specific focus, the certain elements, and the focus on Vampires which I thought was a quick throwaway gag but then managed to become a more essential part of the episode when their story is transformed later on... Even the usual switcharoo gag was done in a way that it surprised me... Those established points alone would of made the plot tolerable, but what made it good was the characters.

The characters here were better then expected and the choices they made for those character roles were reasonable... I mean they could of had Skinner, Selma, Moe and Bart pulled out of a hat but they didn't. Selman managed to use their perspective characteristics to add to the plot; Bart the schemer, Selma the book afficianato (never mentioned before I don't think, my memory is fuzzy but eh, I'll let is slide.) Moe the desperate person and Frink the computer guy who is roped in the last second... I was expecting Homer to do something stupid or the other characters to do some obvious traits but Homer doesn't fuck himself up, Lisa isn't the preachy one and Skinner and Selma don't fight with their respective enemies, they're all in on this... I would of liked to see one fight scene but eh, what we got was good enough...

The guest star even fares well; despite his lack of lines... Note, this is not his first appearence in an animated show, you'd be interested to know that he originally appeared in an Arthur episode (Falafelosophy) before this; where he also played himself but in a role that inspired people to keep on writing despite the odd concept that Sue Ellen was writing about; he fared somewhat badly in that episode but in here he fares much better and looks much better as well... Managing to come off as much more natural and even somewhat funny; he even manages to play an essential role in some plot points, even one at the end... I admit, I was worried about the guest star but he doesn't fuck up, not one bit.

The way the plot is played however is a bit more serious rather then for straight laughs, I think that was the only way the plot was able to go and the dramatic aspect works... The way that it changes from them wanting money to them wanting kids to read their unique book was a nice twist, I mean it would of been boring had they focused solely on the money but luckily Matt Selman made sure not to forget that those people (except Bart; who managed to get roped into their side.) had hearts and wern't in it specifically for the money. Don't assume it's all dramatic though, there are some digs at fantasy novels and one at vampires that worked well for the plot but I didn't think of it as good satire; well maybe okay satire but that's it... There are also some moments that look like it could of been done in the golden age, things as example such as Moe's green blood, Skinner's pizza bit, "every movie ever made" although it would of worked if it was done way, way earlier and the moments that happen in the beginning; they even got in a good Ralph line and made him not sound weird as shit. I'm surprised by the lack of a sideplot; well there was one in which Lisa tried to do her own book but instead felt like she had to do things to get in the writing spirit (which I think is appropriate as most people have trouble writing what comes to mind and barely comes off the first page, so instead they do other stuff thinking that the ideas will come to them.) but that lasted for a short while. I will say that Lisa didn't feel mostly natural and it managed to wear thin but it did hold itself up and the joke manages to get across regardless...

I even liked that they manage to sneak in a decent ending that still manages to get the point across and wrap up the parody and the story... Just shows how much potential Matt Selman has if he took over...

Don't assume that it's flawless though, I did detest some things... One thing being the character's voices, sure; their personality is right but the days when they managed to do the voices with emotion is mostly long gone and as such what they do feels really unnatural... I mean sure, it's a criticism of recent episodes but it would of been good if most of them gave more of a heart to the voice acting. I also noted that while Marge did act like herself, there were some moments where she just seemed off... Again, noted critism. There were also some jokes that didn't land, one being Apu's line in the beginning, Homer's line delivery with some lines being meidocre (despite them being good jokes.), the Twilight cover parody and some elements of the parody that feels unneeded; such as the title screens but I can live with it; I'm not sure other people will... Also did anybody noticed some continuity errors, such as T.R. Francis being a young woman instead of an old woman?

So in a nutshell.. The Book Job is not bad, in fact it's good... This is an episode you'll want to put in your Simpsons collection and the only HD episode worthy of an 8 of higher... There are very few flaws, a lot of the stuff is good, some jokes that wouldn't work if expanded just do their thing and be out and it shows that Matt Selman does have potential, potential that won't be released if Al Jean is still around... I wonder if Matt Selman plans to do something about him? Maybe another car accident, or a more risky choice would be to somehow convince James L. Brooks that Al Jean is mentally ill and need to be replaced. A more unlikely thing happening would be Al Jean stepping down but I don't see that happening in like ever...